Inside Freeman’s OneFORUM

The OneFORUM space at Freeman’s Global Sales Meeting, held in November at the Fort Worth Convention Center, was designed to be an immersive, museum-like environment, encouraging peer-to-peer networking.

Each of the exhibit space’s 12 rooms was dedicated to a particular Freeman business, with its own set-up — a mix of conversation areas, intimate theaters, highboys, and samples for the sales-professional attendees to touch and feel.

“Everything in there, of course,” said Freeman CEO Joe Popolo,“is Freeman, from the furniture to the lights to the smart walls to all the messaging, all the creative. It’s a nice way for us to display our own skills.”

Attendees explored OneFORUM on the first day of the conference on their own, and then tackled OneFORUM in a more deliberate fashion the following day for a scenario-based exercise.

The casual dinner — themed “Camp Wayback” — held in the Fort Worth Omni’s ballroom the evening before the collaborative session took place, got the sales team’s creative juices flowing. Iconic childhood games, like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, didn’t stay static table centerpieces for long. People got even more in touch with their inner child outside the ballroom, where games and crafts were set up on long tables.

Freeman’s conference was a celebration of sorts. “We’ve experienced a lot of growth in the past few years,” Popolo said. “Since the downturn, event marketing in the U.S. and abroad has really come back. It’s nice to see.”